Anglers –
November 5, 2016

Near capacity crowds are arriving now, as this is the peak fall season for the Los Cabos area, the influx of tourists will start to taper off by the end of this month. With the WON Tuna Jackpot being the main event going on this week, with some 169 teams competing for three quarters of a million dollars in prize money and next week there is the annual Wahoo Tournament out of La Playita, in Puerto Los Cabos Marina. Weather has been feeling more like fall now, cooler mornings and also the first predominate north winds sweeping in during the latter part of the week, making tournament conditions a bit rougher that what would be ideal. Ocean temperatures have ranged from 82 to 86 degrees, we should see a cooler trend in the coming weeks.

Anglers have continued to rely on slabs of squids as the main bait sources for targeting the yellowfin tuna, which has been the most common species now being found. As dorado continue to be scarce and wahoo have not been consistent either, though are showing some more signs of becoming more active. Other bait options were small skipjack, chihuil and caballito.

Most sportfishing fleets are concentrated on the areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman, San Luis and Vinorama. In recent days the more consistent action switched from around the Iman Bank to the Gordo Banks, though heavy boat pressure and gusty winds have made efforts more challenging the past couple of days. The yellowfin tuna have ranged from 10 lb. footballs, up to 200 lb. plus cows. Most of the tuna landed were in the 15 to 30 lb. class. Action was up and down, sometimes not until later in the day, charters accounted for catches ranging from one yellowfin to a half dozen fish.

The few wahoo per day on an average that we have seen brought to the docks have been taken on slow trolled trap hooked baits, as well as on Rapalas. Fish averaged 25 to 40 lb. We expect with cooling conditions that the wahoo should start to bite more consistently, best areas recently were near Iman and to the north.

Nothing to speak of near shore now, though we did hear reports of some out of normal season roosterfish seen off of the San Jose del Cabo resort stretch. A few more sierra starting to be seen, sure would be nice if we would see signs of sardinas moving in, but we have heard of no signs at all, this limits options, especially for the winter inshore action.

The bottom has not been producing any consistent bite either, of course there are triggerfish, but only limited numbers of pargo, snapper, cabrilla or amberjack.

We did not see much billfish action this past week out of San Jose del Cabo, this is transition period now for the blues, blacks, stripers and sailfish, these fish are in the area, but numbers are now more limited..

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 168 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 blue marlin, 6 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 355 yellowfin tuna, 17 dorado, 23 wahoo, 18 yellow snapper, 12 leopard grouper, 6 barred pargo, 45 bonito, 35 huachinango, 2 dogtooth snapper, 6 amberjack, 1 roosterfish, 21 sierra and 125 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
October 29, 2016

Large crowds of tourists and visiting anglers continue to arrive in Los Cabos. All tourist related business operators are now very busy. Weather has remained calm, earlier in the week there was major Hurricane Seymour churning some 500 plus miles off to the west of the Baja Peninsula, this system made no impact on land, except for increasing the heat index some with higher humidity. Swells were minimal, there were a couple days where we felt some north wind, these patterns are must starting, as we are transitioning towards late fall season.

Most local charter are concentrating on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. Yellowfin tuna continued to be the most common species targeted. Drift fishing with strips of squid has been the main technique for having success on the yellowfin. Average size tuna was in the 15 to 30 lb. class. Other much larger tuna are lurking, particularly around the Gordo Banks, but getting them to bite is another matter. There were schools of porpoise being encountered within several miles of shores and charters were chasing down these porpoise and drifting strips of squid on lighter leaders for the tuna, these fish have become more leader shy with the increased boat pressure. Catches varied from day to day, as to which area might be a bit more productive. Charters accounted for catches ranging from one or two tuna, to over ten tuna.

Very few dorado this past week, only occasional single fish, most of them small in size. The hot action we heard about for the dorado on the Pacific also reportedly slowed to a standstill, hard to say what is going on with these gamefish. There are some good numbers of wahoo in the area, though no consistent action has been found for these fish, though one super panga early in the week did land a triple header on wahoo up to 40 lb. though on the average we are only seeing a coupled of these fish per day. Most strikes were on slow trolled baits, though others were taken on yo-yo jigs or trolled Rapalas, you never know with wahoo, you have to be ready with an arsenal, trying proven lures and baits. Anglers drift fishing with strips of squid for tuna also hooked into many wahoo, which occasional were landed without the monofilament line being cut.

Some quality dogtooth snapper were being landed from the La Fortuna region, larger baits off the bottom, with buttoned down drags needed in order to turn these fish away from the rocks. No big numbers on these fish, but more than we had been seeing. Also off the structure were an occasional amberjack, yellow snapper, cabrilla, barred pargo, surgeonfish, rainbow runner and of course the ever present triggerfish.

Billfish were not very numerous either, though one blue marlin of 500 pounds was accounted for from a small panga, it hit on a yellowfin tuna, which had just been landed, and then pinned onto a heavy leader and dropped back in the water, this after the skipper had seen the big blue marlin chasing their hooked 15/20 lb. tuna to the boat, the battle to land this big blue took some eight hours, until ten at night when the panga returned to the dock area. We also saw black marlin to over 200 lb., sailfish and striped marlin, though in limited numbers.

With the WON Tuna Jackpot now just around the corner, we will be seeing many teams pre-fishing in hopes of gaining knowledge of where to find the monster cow tuna that will take the grand prize.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 152 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin,1 blue marlin, 5 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 464 yellowfin tuna, 22 dorado, 16 wahoo, 32 yellow snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 1 broomtail, 6 barred pargo, 24 bonito, 6 surgeonfish, 22 huachinango, 21 dogtooth snapper, 11 amberjack, 1 roosterfish, 6 sierra, 28 rainbow runner and 180 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
October 22, 2016

Plenty of activity going on now in Los Cabos, this is now peak fall season time, with the granddaddy of all marlin tournaments now underway, over one hundred teams from all around the world were participating for a chance at the multiple million dollar jackpot prize. The weather has been very ideal, with more wind prevalent than previous week, minimal ocean swells, water temperatures still in the mid 80 degree range.

Last Sunday a group of local San Jose del Cabo anglers fishing from a 22 ft. panga “Mako” hooked into a blue marlin while trolling a guacamaya patterned lure outside of the Cardon area that weighed in at a whopping 707 lbs. They landed the big blue on 100 lb. class tackle after a two hour battle, proved to be quite an event at the dock area for the weigh in, with this coinciding with the traditional Sunday beach crowds.

Another very impressive catch was accounted for on Thursday, angler Mike Mahoney, from San Leandro, Ca., teamed up with skipper Chame Pino on the super panga “Killer II” to land a 310 lb. yellowfin tuna off of the Gordo Banks, they were trolling a live skipjack for bait, the tuna took three and a half hour to bring to gaff. This fish weighed exactly the same as the previous largest yellowfin that Mahoney had landed some ten years ago with the same skipper.

Fleets are very busy now, most charters are fishing on the grounds from the Gordo Banks to Vinorama. The action had shifted more in the direction of Vinorama, full moon also seemed to have some impact, with the tuna bite becoming more finicky from day to day, some days early, some days late. Average size yellowfin being caught are in the 15 to 35 lb. class, but obviously there are some much larger fish in the area. Early in the week some charters encountered porpoise off of the San Jose del Cabo region and there were large concentrations of yellowfin tuna traveling with these mammals. The porpoise were traveling quickly, so the key was to get in front of them and drop down strips of squid, then repeat the process over and over, fast pace fishing, but also very productive for tuna in the 20 to 30 lb. class. This type of action can be there one day and gone the next, but has held up for about four days so far, moving in different directions daily.

Wahoo were starting to become more active, as they usually do this time of year. Best areas were from San Luis to Vinorama, slow trolling with trap hooked chihuil has been the best technique for enticing strikes, though these baits are not easy to obtain. A few fish were striking on trolled Rapalas as well. The wahoo landed ranged in sizes up to 50 lb. Lots of these fish are on the local fishing rounds now, so we are optimistic for a great season to develop on these sought after gamefish.

Dorado continue to be very limited, though we have seen a few more nicer sized specimens, bulls up to 30 lb. were brought in, no particular spot, scattered form offshore to inshore, most were taken on trolled lures, others on the same striped squid being targeting for tuna.

No inshore action to report beside a few roosterfish, jack crevalle and at least one snook, caught by shore anglers in the vicinity of the marina jetties.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 138 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 7 striped marlin, 11 sailfish, 610 yellowfin tuna, 34 dorado, 23 wahoo, 34 yellow snapper, 16 leopard grouper, 6 barred pargo, 12 bonito, 3 surgeonfish, 32 huachinango, 6 dogtooth snapper, 14 amberjack, 65 rainbow runner and 200 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric